Poteau Runestone

The Poteau Runestone was found by schoolboys in 1967 near Poteau in Le Flore County, Oklahoma, United States.

It is 15 inches long. There are seven characters in a straight line, 11⁄2 to 2 inches high. The runes showed very plainly because the bottom of the grooves were in a lighter colored layer of the stone, while the surface was dark. Tool marks in the grooves showed that the letters had been made with a punch, like the Heavener Runestone. Four of the runes are duplicates of those on the Heavener Runestone, and three seemed to be variants of others on it. From the site of the Poteau runestone, the Heavener Runestone on the side of Poteau Mountain lies about 10 miles to the southeast. The original sites of Heavener Runestones Numbers Two and Three fall in a line between them.

Most of the characters belong to the Elder Futhark in use during the 2nd to 8th century AD. However, the last character, which would be an "L" is reversed compared with the second to last "A". Also, the second character is an a from the Younger Futhark . The transcription is then G-A-O-M-E-D-A-L. It is possible that the makers of this stone intended to draw an Elder Futhark N, but also reversed it.